Thanks for all your comments on my MD Sheep & Wool stash enhancement! I was pretty proud of that photo – the colors in the photo somehow were actually pretty accurate, and it was in focus! A happy accident.
So you may have noticed that I’ve been gone for a while. I was on a business trip, and then I went to NYC for the Broadway show weekend with the b.f. We had so much fun! I sort of fell in love with the city, even as I realized that I would lose my mind if I were to live there. Anyway, we went to see a show – Avenue Q, which was hilarious – and just generally tool around the city. I had no idea the “theater district” is just that – theaters and theatergoers everywhere! I had to take a picture of the sights:
I hadn’t been in about four years – I don’t know why I never get out of DC anymore. New York is so enormous, yet so cramped; so fast-paced, but with terrible traffic; sometimes dirty but always elegant. Have you ever read
The Alienist by Caleb Carr? It’s set in New York, around the turn of the century, when the robber barons were making their fortunes and building a beautiful city to show their prosperity. Everywhere I went, I saw buildings, sculptures, and subway stop mosaics that made me wonder what they must have looked like when they were new. Some of course, are very well preserved, like Judson Memorial Church, across from Washington Square Park. This is a closeup of the building’s façade.
I learned after I got back that the church was built by Edward Judson as a memorial to his father Adoniram Judson, the first American foreign missionary. It was actually a Baptist church at the time, and was funded by John D. Rockefeller, among others. Architect Stanford White, stained glass master John La Farge, and sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens were commissioned to design and outfit the church.
Anyway, enough with the history lesson! On to the knitting. While I was in Greenwich Village on Sunday, I also went somewhere else…guess where I went? Guess!
Purl Soho!
As you probably know, the author of
Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, Joelle Hoverson, is the proprietress of this fine establishment. I had been warned that on the weekends, there is often a line to get in the store, since it is so tiny. Lucky for me, this was not the case on Sunday so I was able to spend as much time as I wanted without feeling rushed.
I loved the way the store was laid out – yarn lining the walls with a long table right in the middle. There was a smaller table near the entrance, with swatches of all the yarns in the store. And when I say swatches, that really doesn’t do them justice – these were dishcloth-sized samples of knitted fabric that gave you a real sense of how the yarn would drape in an actual garment. The yarns were organized by color, but that doesn’t quite describe it; it was more like tonal progressions of color, making it easy for those of us looking for a blue-purple or yellow beige to discern the differences between the many offerings.
And as luck would have it, Joelle was there! She was very busy, yet helpful and attentive – and clearly master of her domain. She smiled delightedly whenever anyone told her they’d made one of her patterns, which happened a lot while I was in there!
Purl has a lot to choose from for such a small store: tons of Alchemy and Lorna’s Laces, simple and fancy Classic Elite (lots of cashmere), Rowan, Noro, Harrisville Designs, Louet (including the linen stuff), Joseph Galler, hemp yarn, lots and lots of Koigu (and Kersti), Blue Sky and probably some other stuff I’m leaving out. A great selection! I left with some Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in one of the
specially-dyed-for-Purl colors (shoot! I haven’t taken a photo yet) and some Louet Gems Opal for another baby sweater.
A great trip! I love visiting yarn stores in other cities. I realized (too late) that I would not get a chance to get to
Habu! Well, I’ll just have to go to NYC again soon!
Happy knitting, everyone!
